Marvel Thinks BLACK WIDOW Can Eclipse WONDER WOMAN?!?

It’s been plain to see for ages that Disney and Marvel Studios are very confident entities, but this latest rumor takes that perception to a whole new level. A couple of weeks ago, the big news coming out of the Mouse House was that they were finally (FINALLY!) looking to get a Black Widow movie off of the ground. While the project was talked about for ages, the news that they’d hired a screenwriter meant that the film was the closest its ever been to becoming a reality.

According to The Daily Mail, Disney/Marvel’s ambitions for Black Widow are sky high, and star Scarlett Johansson is looking to cash in on that. In an article discussing what a big, fat paycheck Johansson may score for doing the film, they mentioned some fascinating insights into what the studio’s outlook on Black Widow‘s box office numbers could be:

“Scarlett will get a huge pay day for the Black Widow film, which Disney believes could eclipse Wonder Woman in terms of a female-led superhero film’s revenue. She has been a lucky charm for the studio in all their films, and brings her A-game during each performance. Scarlett is adored by Disney’s top brass and is a real team player.

This stand-alone movie is out there for them, but they feel it can make history. The wages are high, but nothing she doesn’t deserve given her track record as this character…Her agents have pushed through the revenue bonus payment. If it makes over $900 million at the box office then she will get another $6 million. The script is being written and the hopes are to have the stand-alone film in cinemas by summer 2020.”

These claims by The Daily Mail are kind of bananas for a number of reasons. For starters, Wonder Woman was a cultural phenomenon when it came out in June of last year. By the time Black Widow would conceivably come out in 2020, the world would’ve been treated to Wonder Woman 2, Captain Marvel, and- possibly- a Harley Quinn-centric movie like Birds of Prey or Gotham City Sirens. So Black Widow would be arriving very late to the party.

Then there are other factors to consider.

Black Widow has no superpowers, meaning her story would have to be more grounded, which automatically makes it less of an “event film.” It almost has to be more of an espionage-style action/thriller, which is awesome, but means the expectations should be more Lucy than Wonder Woman. And Lucy, which was a smash, made $463,360,063– a far cry from Wonder Woman‘s $821,847,012.

This sort of situation also means they’re missing the boat on what Black Widow could be: A low-budget, low-risk/high-reward endeavor like Deadpool. This should be the kind of film that costs way south of $100 Million, which would guarantee it’d be another box office win for Marvel. There’s nothing about this character’s mythology that screams that they have to “go big.” Our own editor-in-chief presented how he’d approach the movie on twitter when the news of the screenwriter dropped, and its one that resonated with many:

A self-contained, action-thriller with deeply personal stakes. Have her go after the people who turned her into an assassin. Have her face other assassins. Have it take place over the course of 24-72 hours.

Giving Johansson a rumored $25 Million pay day, and trying to turn this into something that would rival Wonder Woman seems like they’re trying to do too much with too little. Especially when you consider that her last big budget action flick, Ghost In The Shell, only made a paltry $169,801,921.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s also consider that The Daily Mail may be inferring things incorrectly. We should treat their take on the expectations for the film as their own speculation because- otherwise- we’d have to believe that Disney/Marvel are reaching way too far with their expectations for Black Widow.

Atomic Blonde didn’t exactly burn up the box office and there will be a Red Sparrow movie coming out soon. What does Black Widow really have going for it? Will slapping the Marvel name on it be good enough?

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Revenge of the Fans is a nerd-leaning news, analysis, and enjoyment project. The site was started in early 2018, in the dark days before anyone on the Internet had anything to say about comic book movies or pop culture. The site was the idea of Mario Francisco Robles, a man with his finger on the pulse of the comic book movie industry, and Jon, a person who we aren’t completely sure isn’t a figment of Mario’s imagination.